Bare Bodies, Mud Baths, and Beyond: Wet in Retrospect

In the late 1970s, bohemian hipsters on L.A.’s west side were getting Wet. Despite its small circulation, it became highly influential among local artists, designers, and architects. And now, “Making Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing,” provides a sampling of its spirit.

Poster illustration and design: John Van Hamersveld.

Leonard Koren admits in his book that when he launched Wet in Venice Beach in 1976 he had “no skills in writing, editing, designing, art directing, advertising sales, publishing, or business generally.” The first one, printed at Peace Press Graphics, “looked an awful lot like a newsletter.” After a few more issues he met Thomas Ingalls. “Tom had pale white skin, a long, straight nose, and limp blond hair parted rakishly on the side. He was exactly how I imagined a graphic designer might look.”

For the next six months or so, Tom tutored Leonard on layouts and paste-ups and connected him with photographers, illustrators, and designers who contributed to the magazine in exchange for freedom from commercial restraints. “In Wet they were able to express their bolder, brasher weirder visions – unfettered. April Greiman was one of those creators. She and Tom were romantically involved but on the verge of breaking up. In calmer times they had both agreed to assemble Wet issue number six. It was to be the first time someone other than me designed the magazine. When I brought in the text and visuals, April and Tom were screaming at each other. Nervously I sat around waiting, wondering if I had made the right decision.”

As it progressed, each issue became an innovative, off-the-grid visual experience. Graphic sensibilities varied from punk to pre-New Wave to proto-PostMod. Leonard recently told me, “I wouldn’t know where to begin about the various art directors who’ve worked for Wet.”

The magazine lasted 34 issues before it went under in 1981. While afloat it covered the likes of David Hockney, David Byrne, David Lee Roth, David Lynch, Dick Dale, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Sissy Spacek, Tim Leary, Merle Haggard, Mick Jagger, Henry Darger, Henry Miller, Helmut Newton, and on and on.

Those features, and a full survey of the magazine’s groundbreaking graphics, will have to wait for their own anthologies. Rather than an immersion, “Making Wet” is mostly a frothy, self-indulgent soak, with snapshots and drawings of men, women, and children in various stages of undress, cavorting and luxuriating in all manner of showers, spas, and tubs. There’s also a ten-page comic strip review of bath soaps by a pre-Simpsons Matt Groening, work by Gary Panter and Peter Shire, and some striking covers, including the ones below. So take a dip.

About Michael Dooley

Michael Dooley is the creative director of Michael Dooley Design and teaches Design History at Art Center College of Design and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is also a Print contributing editor and writes on art and design for a variety of publications.

3 thoughts on “Bare Bodies, Mud Baths, and Beyond: Wet in Retrospect”

Damn! I subscribed to this magazine and my wife has obviously tossed them out somewhere along our moves from city to city. I had worked for Francis Ford Coppola when he had supported our San Francisco biweekly magazine and then my girlfriend got a position at Warhol’s Interview and after that I thought WET was the next thing.